Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son has suggested closer cooperation in e-government, post, radio frequency, broadcast and television between Vietnam and Japan during his talks with Japanese Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Sanae Takaichi on July 7.

Minister Son, who is on a working visit to Japan from July 6-9, affirmed that Vietnam is willing to coordinate with Japan in ensuring information safety and wants to receive official development assistance (ODA) from Japan for projects in the field.

He said his visit aims to promote the implementation of agreements reached by the two Governments, thus reinforcing and expanding the friendship and comprehensive strategic cooperation between the two countries.

While expressing her impression of Vietnam’s development in information technology and communications, Minister Sanae Takaichi said Vietnam is playing a leading role in the field in Southeast Asia.

She affirmed his agency’s commitment to continue providing training support for Vietnam, adding that the ministry will cooperate with the Vietnamese Foreign Affairs and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in assisting Vietnam’s information safety projects.

The two sides agreed to maintain regular dialogues to share information and management experience. They also underlined the need to encourage Vietnamese and Japanese enterprises operating in communications and IT to enhance investment and business links.

After their talks, the two ministers witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperating in radio-frequency engineering between the Authority of Radio Frequency Management and its Japanese counterpart, and a cooperation agreement between the Vietnam Post Corporation and the Japanese Post.

On July 8, Minister Son presided over the Vietnam-Japan investment promotion forum in IT and communications, which was attended by a crowd of Japanese and Vietnamese firms.

He valued the connection between the two countries’ IT and communications businesses, saying they contribute to deepening the strategic relations and fuelling each country’s development.

On the occasion, the Vietnamese official met with representatives from Japanese leading IT groups NTT, Fujitsu, NEC, Nissho and Hitachi, during which Japanese firms pledged to continue expanding their investments in Vietnam.

Minister Son also witnessed the signing of cooperation documents between the NTT and the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group , Vietnam’s Post and Telecommunications Institute of Technology and Japan’s Aizu University, and the Vietnam De partment of Information Safety and Japan’s National Information Security Centre.-VNA